Bridging the Past & Future: How Technology Is Transforming Our Legacy Knowledge

With over 60 years in the aerospace maintenance, repair, and overhaul industry, Walbar Peabody is proud to have a tenured team with extensive knowledge. However, this also means we have significant legacy knowledge to preserve. Not to mention, technology is evolving faster than ever, and staying ahead of the curve is crucial.

This is where moving into the future helps us stay connected to our past. Technological advances help us incorporate the legacy knowledge of our forebears while improving our processes. Collaboration between our long-standing experts and the incoming generation of employees is essential to tracking and updating this knowledge.

And often, it’s about making small changes that have big impacts. 

Check out the areas we’re focusing on to elevate quality and the customer experience. 

Digitizing & Centralizing Documentation

Preserving knowledge starts with thorough documentation—and much of ours was previously on paper. So, we’ve been heavily focused on digitizing and centralizing documents. 

For one thing, we’ve been rewriting quality documents into digital formats (e.g., recreating them as Word documents, developing templates, etc.). In some instances, we’ve made small updates; in others, we’ve completely rewritten technical documents to ensure compliance. Now, our Quality Control team has stepped in to manage this area.

We’ve also been moving away from paper documents overall, having recently implemented a company SharePoint that serves as a central repository for documents, news, and certifications. Each department even has its own page to share updates. Everyone has easy access to everything they need in one spot. Everything is going digital, from updates and revisions, essentially maintaining an online shared workflow. And, of course, we’re also documenting all of our changes, project reviews, and photos in SharePoint.

Another key process we’ve updated is scanning 8130s and similar paperwork, which has proven much more efficient than using physical storage. Now, team members can quickly and easily retrieve documents when needed—there is no need to call a storage facility and ask to send a box back, which can take valuable time.

These changes improve overall efficiency and reduce the time spent searching for information. Thanks to universal, streamlined communication, they also ensure that all teams are on the same page.

Capturing & Retaining Knowledge

These technological updates are helping to track and retain knowledge, especially during transitions and staff changes. Previously, there were gaps after former operators left the company. Leveraging technology helps mitigate these knowledge gaps, making it easier to train new team members so they and their trainers won’t have to search for historical work and data. Thoroughly capturing information and what we’ve done in the past helps us continue to grow and improve moving forward.

Overcoming Challenges & Building Trust

When blending more tenured pros with newer team members, there can be some hesitancy and friction. Some of our existing employees were concerned about the impact of these technical and process improvements on delivery and customer experience. 

We all understand that respecting others’ opinions is crucial in engineering and that gaining outside perspectives is pivotal to positive change. Walbar Peabody is fortunate to have a mix of tenured team members and those who bring their experience from other facilities. Most of the new solutions we’ve implemented have led to positive outcomes and better quality, building trust in the new processes.